Trans-Texas Corridor plans dropped after public outcry

Amadeo Saenz Jr. says public outcry has convinced the Texas Department of Transportation to drop the Trans-Texas Corridor plan and adopt a more user-friendly approach.

Amadeo Saenz Jr. says public outcry has convinced the Texas Department of Transportation to drop the Trans-Texas Corridor plan and adopt a more user-friendly approach.

Photo: AP

Photo: AP

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Amadeo Saenz Jr. says public outcry has convinced the Texas Department of Transportation to drop the Trans-Texas Corridor plan and adopt a more user-friendly approach.

Amadeo Saenz Jr. says public outcry has convinced the Texas Department of Transportation to drop the Trans-Texas Corridor plan and adopt a more user-friendly approach.

Photo: AP

Trans-Texas Corridor plans dropped after public outcry

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AUSTIN — The ambitious proposal to create the Trans-Texas Corridor network has been dropped in response to public outcry and will be replaced with a plan to carry out road projects at an incremental, modest pace, state officials said Tuesday.

The state will move forward with a series of individual projects that had been considered part of the Trans-Texas Corridor plan, he said. Among those is the Interstate 69 project, which, as proposed, would run from Texarkana to Laredo or the Rio Grande Valley.

Saenz said overwhelming public response was a key factor in the agency's decision to abandon the plan, and he pledged that the agency would rely heavily on input from Texans through more town hall meetings and an updated Web site.

"One practical lesson we've taken away from this experience is, we need to do a better job of communicating," he said. "We need to do a better job of listening."

The Legislature, Saenz said, has made it clear TxDOT must change and become more accountable and transparent.

The renewed effort now will operate under the name "Innovative Connectivity in Texas" to usher in a new method of operation, Saenz said.

The decision won applause from a number of officials and watchdog organizations. David Stall of the citizens' group Corridor Watch called it a major victory for Texans.

"We're real pleased that a project once described as unstoppable has now screeched to a halt," he said.

Gov. Rick Perry introduced the Trans-Texas Corridor concept six years ago, calling for a network of broad corridors linking major cities, with toll roads for cars and trucks, tracks for freight and passenger rail, and space for pipelines and power lines.

The $175 billion, 4,000-mile network was needed, he said, to accommodate rapid growth of the state's population and the expected increase in Mexican truck traffic following passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA.

The idea drew criticism from the start, criticism that intensified after Perry announced the state had contracted with a Spanish consortium to build and operate one of the sections of the controversial network.

Last January, town hall meetings north and west of Houston drew thousands of residents but few supporters for the plan. Rural property owners, in particular, lambasted the plan, complaining it would take too much private land, and bring traffic and crime to rural areas.

TxDOT announced last summer that the corridor would stick to major highways for most of the route in Southeast and South Texas.

Perry, who was visiting troops in Iraq Tuesday, said the name Trans-Texas Corridor is dead, but the state will continue to look at public-private partnerships to build roads, including toll roads.

"The name Trans-Texas Corridor is over with. We're going to continue to build roads in the state of Texas," he said. "Our options are relatively limited due to Washington's ineffectiveness from the standpoint of being able to deliver dollars or the Legislature to raise the gas tax. So, we have to look at some other options."

Merely a maneuver?

Rep.
Lois Kolkhorst
, R-Brenham, said she wants to make sure TxDOT is doing more than just changing the name of the project.

"Is this an admission of error or a strategic maneuver to repackage?" she asked. "Unfortunately, there is a distrust of the department."

Kolkhorst said she wants to make sure the state retains ownership of new tollways so the revenue can be invested in more roads instead of "allowing the profits to go off potentially to other countries to investors."

Stall, of Corridor Watch, said his group understands that toll roads likely will be needed to address congestion. But he said those roads now will be built to meet local transportation needs rather than to allow a private company to profit from development along new routes.

Senate Transportation and Homeland Security Chairman John Carona, R-Dallas, said the announcement "should be of great relief to literally thousands of Texans we heard from who were opposed to the Trans-Texas Corridor as first envisioned."

It also removes a distraction for the Legislature, which convenes next week.

"We can now focus on the real issue, which is additional road capacity and the means to finance the same," Carona said.

He said his goals are to win passage of a proposed constitutional amendment that would, if approved by voters, dedicate all of the motor fuels tax to highway funding. Additionally, he said, the Legislature should pass a bill that ties the gas tax to inflation.

He acknowledged that raising the gas tax will be politically difficult.

"I try to remind people, we're not just talking about the inconvenience of congestion," he said. "Insufficient road capacity affects the quality of life and economic development. It also affects air quality."